YIVO's Top 5 of 2016

Thanks to our incredible donors, YIVO has been able to accomplish many great things this year. Here are some of our favorites:
 

YIVO’s Shine Online Educations Series

Our first online course, Discovering Ashkenaz: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe, launched to rave reviews in January 2016. 3,500+ people from 50+ countries registered. Registration is now open for our second online course, Folksong, Demons, and the Evil Eye: Folklore of Ashkenaz, which begins January 17.
 

The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project

In addition to raising $5 million out of $5.6 million for our Vilna Collections project (which fulfills the $1.16 million challenge grant received in 2015), we have met or exceeded all benchmarks set for preservation and digitization of these prewar archival and library collections separated by the Holocaust. In the summer of 2017, YIVO will begin making these books and materials available to everyone through a dedicated web portal.

Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture

Our summer program brought together students ages 13-70 from four continents this summer. The longest running Yiddish intensive program in the world, this year’s class was one of the largest groups yet. The program trains the next generation of Yiddish scholars, teachers, and students, inspiring communities around the world to experience the Yiddish language in all its history, complexity, and beauty. The program will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year.

Public Programs

We hosted 45 public programs, covering a range of Jewish life, history, and culture, including: concerts by John Zorn and his ensemble, violinist Yuval Waldman, and Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigalis; a private screening of Persona Non Grata, a film about the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who saved 6,000 Jews during World War II; and conferences A Tribute to Sholem Aleichem and The Blood Libel Then and Now.

Three Exhibitions

We mounted three exhibitions. Laughter is Still Healthy: Sholem Aleichem 100 Years Later honors Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem’s 100th yortsayt. The exhibit features the newly acquired Sholem Aleichem Family Archive, as well as manuscripts, photographs, and other rarely seen materials from the YIVO Archives. Classic Yiddish Writers in Caricature showcases caricature portrayals of Yiddish’s “Di klasiker” – the three classic authors of Yiddish literature, Mendele Moykher-Sforim (S. Y. Abramovitsh), Y. L. Peretz, and Sholem Aleichem (Sholem Rabinovitsh). The caricatures are contemporary depictions from the writers’ times from Yiddish-language periodicals in Europe and America. Professional Jokers: Jewish Jesters from the Golden Age of American Comedy shined a spotlight on Jewish American comedians and the variety of ways in which many of them engaged their Jewishness to enrich American comedic culture.